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constant coughing

My 16 year old daughter started with what seemed like a cold almost 3 weeks ago. After 3 days of an uncontrolable cough I brought her to the doctors. When I say uncontolable I mean she was coughing non stop for hours at a time. He put her on an antibiotic (zpack) and gave her cough medicine with codine. 5 days later she was not any better. Brought her back to the doctors and they did a test for whooping cough(have to wait 2 weeks for the results) and a chest x-ray, which was fine and put her on steriods. A week later she was still not better. She was seen by a pulmonary specialist this morning. They do not know whats wrong with her. In the office they had her take singulair,a 10 mg tab, use a advair diskus and nasonex. That was at 9:00am this morning. Its 8:00 pm now on the same day and she is still coughing non stop but added to that she is having soreness to touch in her neck, front and back, her upper chest and even her arm pits. She said that it almost feels like someone is choking her although she is not having problems swallowing. This is a new symptom that started about a half hour ago. My question are: Can this new symptom be from the medication she took almost 12 hrs ago? Do you have any idea what this can be? I feel so bad for her because there is nothing I can do to help her!
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Avatar universal
When I was a child, I was tested for allergies and asthma.  I had it all.  But, in growing up, I have had less problems.  However, I am in my 30's now, and for at least 8 or 9 years now, I have caught a cough or a sneezing fit that lasted for what seemed like forever.  I would have a dry cough with a tickle in my throat that caused me to cough non stop and lose my voice this time of year every year.  I have had about 2 years off until this year.  I coughed so hard at the doctor's office this time around that I was shaking, vomiting and holding my head from the pain.  It was so bad that my doctor thought I was going through some kind of withdrawals from alcohol and the like.  Have mercy.  Over the counter meds do nothing.  My doctor gave me cough syrup (Tussionex) that seems to have losened everything up.  I'm also on Benzonatate.  It all seems to be helping, but now my nose has a constant feeling of needing to sneeze.  I should not have driven myself to the doctor.  It was that bad.  My head was pounding, I was getting dizzy, and I felt like I was going to pass out at any minute.  I can only wonder if this is a severe allergy because it only happens in the winter.  
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563773 tn?1374246539
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello,

In majority of the cases of undiagnosed and continuous cough,the underlying cause is bronchial asthma.The doctors are right in diagnosing and treating her as bronchial asthma with steroids ,bronchodilators and singulair(montelukast).It usually takes some time for the cough to settle down.Pls make sure that you adequately reassure your daughter as it may take some time for the cough to go.The pain in the neck and upper body is probably because of strain/injury to the muscles because of repeated coughing.It will go away only with cough.Pls don’s give her any NSAID analgesics as they will precipitate the cough further.She can however take acetaminaophen(Tylenol) for the pain.

Hope it helps .Take care and pls do keep us posted in case you have any additional queries.Kind regards.

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